daily life as life goes on . . .

When I was a youngster, one of the great competitions was the sword drill.

Deriving from the idea that the Bible is the sword of the Lord, we would then drill into the Bible in competition to see who could find a verse first.  Favourites like John 3:16 could be found in a matter of seconds.

So, when asked to lead a sword drill for our Grades 4-7 class, I was will to lead the drill.

Except some of our students had brought their ipads and Blackberries – with the Bible on them.  Now, the smartest and quickest of the paper Bible crowd was the one who wanted the sword drill.  He thought he could match those with electronica!

So, I started with a fairly hard verse – in the middle nowhere as far as  Bible verses are concerned.  The studious one found it fairly quickly.  But not quickly enough.  The electronica gang had merely to click three times and in a matter of a second the verse was found.  Attempting an easier verse fared no better.

And so, the sword drill may become a dinosaur!  Perhaps we can now ask the students not only to find the verse quickly (which will not take much), but now, because they will have no problem finding the verse, we can ask them to explain the verse in their own words.  Competition and content – not a bad idea!!

You may have been told that you need to be quiet as a way of knowing God.  Usually that meant shutting out noise and not being noisy yourself.  Works well in a worship service to shut off all the instruments, quiet the vocals and let silence reign. 

Very uncomfortable for people who live in a busy world.

Today I was reading about our shifting culture.  In a day and age when worship services were mostly done through reading and music, this was an easy thing to accomplish.

Now, in a day and age when media is king, the newest concern is to be dark and know who God is.  We have been so overcrowded with images and visual noise that we need to include darkness in our services.

At first I was adverse to the thought that we, the people of the light, would seek God in darkness.  And I still struggle with this being a fad.

But, at the same time, I wonder how many of us close our eyes when we pray.  If you have ever prayed with your eyes open, you know that there is a different feel to your prayers.  When you go to the dark in prayer, there is a certain meditation and concentration that happens.

So, maybe there is something to this idea that in darkness we know God.  What do you think?

The temperature rose to such a height that things were melting.  As the evaporated H20 rose to the sky, I would have thought a rainbow would appear.

Well, maybe it didn’t.  But this winter has been one of those rainbow events.  Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds sing – or maybe crows caw and green growth appears.

All of this year seems like a dream of rainbow proportion.  Not that winter is over – the past decades show that the vast majority of records indicate snow will fall after spring comes on March 21st.  But the snow will melt quickly and the rivers of cold water will wash our streets clean.

All that to say – I still can’t believe it.  Here in Saskatchewan today, one town was up to 17 degrees Celcius.  My thermometer showed at least 9 degrees Celcius.  Not bad for a winter day!!

These last few days my daily Bible readings have taken me into the Gospel of John.

Now, I’ve always found this an interesting story book.  Not in the sense of fiction – this is true non-fiction!  Rather, in the sense of narratives that are purposeful in their intent – like an Aesop’s fable only better!!

I’d also have to say that the stories themselves leave me hanging.  I remember the first time I read some of the narratives of Jesus around the supper table of his final meal.  I finally just picked out the verses that I could understand and left the rest for later.

Which is now.

So, here’s one of those interesting thoughts.  I’ve been concentrating on Sabbathing.  In other words, finding time to rest and relax – at least once a day.  And to putter at least some time in each day.

Imagine, then, coming to Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders figured Jesus shouldn’t have told the man he healed to carry his mat – that was working (John 5:10).  These Jews then persecuted Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

Hear his reply!  “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father works constantly up until this very point of time, and I also am working.” (RJB version).   And that is about what Jesus does on the Sabbath.  He never stops working.  On a day of rest.

How does that work?